JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds says he is in hiding in South Africa following his deportation from Zimbabwe because he believes his life is in danger. He told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he believes he is being pursued by a secret Zimbabwean death squad because of information he has on American businessmen, especially from Chicago, who are doing business illegally with Zimbabwe.

**SNIP** The disgraced Illinois ex-congressman denied charges he was found with nude pictures and videos of women and men having sexual intercourse on his mobile phone. The count was an alleged violation of Zimbabwe's Censorship and Entertainments Control Act, according to Gurira, and carried a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine. Pornography is banned in Zimbabwe. Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe agreed with Reynolds’ lawyer that state prosecutors had not sought written authority from the prosecutor general for the pornography charge. “This makes the actions of the state null and void,” Gurira said. Earlier on Friday, Reynolds...

Former Illinois Democratic Rep. Mel Reynolds was arrested Monday in Zimbabwe after police learned that he was making pornographic films in hotels where he had accumulated $24,500 in unpaid bills, and that he had overstayed his visa by two months.

Sen. Robert Menendez wooed a married newspaper publisher, taking the attractive brunette on a romantic getaway to the Caribbean, a tipster alleges. The New Jersey Dem and Cecilia Reynolds jetted to Puerto Rico, where they stayed at the isolated beach retreat of the island’s then-governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila. In a photo provided by the anonymous informant, Reynolds is sitting naked on a beach and suggestively smiling at the camera. In another set of pictures, they take turns posing against the same sunset backdrop. The happy couple, dressed in shorts, also appeared to tour a national park and pose for a...

Tell us what you really think, Oklahoma Rep. Mike Reynolds. Reynolds is making a few enemies after bluntly stating "it's not our job to see that anyone gets an education" in an email exchange between Oklahoma lawmakers. When fellow Rep. James Lockhart emailed colleagues asking them to support a bill that would expand Oklahoma's Promise, a scholarship program for qualified low-income students, Reynolds responded, "It is not the responsibility of me, you, or any constituent in my district to pay for his or any other persons [sic] education …

**SNIP** One in the pack running for Jackson’s vacated house seat is one who’s been there before, former congressman Mel Reynolds. “At a time when we are living in the killing fields of Chicago, our federal government seems obsessed with the Jackson,” said Reynolds. Reynolds points to stories that include Jackson’s wife Sandi who’s also resigned her elective seat as alderman. “Do they really now want to put both parents of small children in jail or is their strategy to get Sandi Jackson to flip on her husband so they can put even more pressure on that family?” said Reynolds.

(CNN) -- Actor Burt Reynolds is in intensive care in a Florida hospital, where he went for treatment of flu symptoms, one of his representatives said Friday. Reynolds was dehydrated when he went to the hospital, and was eventually transferred to its intensive care unit, his representative Erik Kritzer told CNN. Kritzer declined to divulge what hospital the actor was in, saying, "He would like that (kept) private." "He is doing better at this time," Kritzer said late Friday afternoon of the 76-year-old actor. "We expect, as soon as he gets more fluids, he will be back in a regular...

Ah, Chicago and its politics. There's no other American city quite like it. Fortunately. It's a beautiful city from the outside. And a political cesspool inside, a seeping source of conniving and corruption that spawned Barack Obama and his top aide Valerie Jarrett and is now ruled by the president's ex-chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Another amazing chapter in the Windy City's sordid politics began unfolding Wednesday, one whose lineage can actually be traced back to the very beginnings of Obama's political career, which now has an extended expiry date of Jan. 20, 2017. Today, Obama lunches with the man...

Burt Reynolds, once one of Hollywood's highest-paid stars, faces eviction from his Florida home after failing to pay the mortgage. The 75-year-old actor is being taken to court after claims he has failed to make a payment on his waterfront mansion for almost a year. Lawyers for Merrill Lynch have asked a judge to sell the £1.4million house, set in 4.5 acres, so they can recover the £700,000 the bank says it is owed In a sign of the scale of his financial hardship, property records show Reynolds has a second £455,000 mortgage on the property with another bank. He...

The creators of the play Book of Mormon have created the Amos and Andy for the South Park set. We may laugh, but our grandchildren will shudder as decent folk do at “wits” of the last century whose favorite dance was to “jump Jim Crow.” The parts of the Book of Mormon I have seen are as innovative as a Newsies revival and as funny as the cruel, tasteless jokes told by an inebriated coworker at a Christmas party. The difference is that the coworker might sober up in the morning, but the mindless mockery that also gave us South...

Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois September 15, 1858 MR. DOUGLAS' SPEECH. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I appear before you today in pursuance of a previous notice, and have made arrangements with Mr. Lincoln to divide time, and discuss with him the leading political topics that now agitate the country. Prior to 1854 this country was divided into two great political parties known as Whig and Democratic. These parties differed from each other on certain questions which were then deemed to be important to the best interests of the Republic. Whig and Democrats differed about a bank, the...

President Obama or Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. should declare publicly whether executive privilege has been invoked in the Justice Department's refusal to release documents showing why voter-intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party were dismissed, says the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Declaring an impasse in negotiations between the commission and the department, Commission Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds said the Justice Department has "repeatedly refused" to provide any basic information regarding the case, instead asserting "vague and generalized privileges" that do not apply. "The actual basis for the department's continued refusal to cooperate with the commission remains...

Chapter 6In Summary: Ten Things I Learned From Reading Going Rogue This was a bad and unhelpful book. It was not bad because it was simple. Goldwater (or his ghost) used fewer pages in Conscience of a Conservative and said more. It was not bad because it was autobiographical. Though I don’t like his politics, President Obama confessed more and said it better in Dreams from My Father. If you don’t believe that this book is bad, then read (really do!) Ronald Reagan’s autobiography Where’s the Rest of Me? Ronald Reagan showed more substance in his delightful book written mostly...

Chapter 5Chapter Six Here at last I will get to read the Palin agenda for the future. If she is going to run for President, here is her manifesto . . . but there are too few pages left for that. Here at least I will get a glimpse of what she wants for the nation. I will not demand too much of this chapter and will hope that at long last I can see the glimmers of a plan, a platform, a plausible path to the White House. Of course, if she is not running for office, or even...

Chapter 4Chapter Five I have changed my mind about one issue by the end of this book. Palin’s resignation as governor now makes a good deal of sense to me. The media pressure and ethics complaints did not fade away and she was no longer able to do her job. I thought her resignation nearly a “deal breaker,” but that was a hasty judgment on my part. Surely the day will come when the media will tire of kicking Palin and then she will get peace. Some will argue that Palin is getting rich off of her media exposure, but...

Chapter 3Chapter Four At last the chapter for which we have all been waiting: Sarah Palin is picked as McCain’s running mate. For those of us who were Palin fans before the announcement it is is interesting to read what was happening behind the news stories. Palin was treated badly by the media. They sneered at her like she was a Window user at a Mac convention. She was hit harder than anyone I have ever seen . . . and the McCain camp was not ready. They mishandled the issue of her daughter’s pregnancy by not getting ahead of...

Chapter 2Chapter Three Palin runs and wins an election for governor in this chapter. The pace of this book reminds you of how young Palin really is for national life. She truly is an outsider. She hates “deals” and “power brokers.” Post-Obama and the Great Recession it would be foolish to dismiss this authentic rage. She sounds most herself when she hitting corrupt special interests that lock people out of decision making. She sounds least like herself when repeating 1980’s Republican bromides. Palin is a populist of the heart, but too sensible to let her populism take her to the...

Intro and Chapter 1Chapter 2 On Aristotle Palin begins her second chapter with a quote from Aristotle. I think I must be going mad, but I cannot remember this quotation either. Where is it? I cannot find a reference in any book I own . . . but then I am writing this as I read her book. Can someone help me? Did Aristotle say, ” Criticism is something we can avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, being nothing?” I want a reference to the text. It is surely not possible that in less than one hundred pages that Palin...

Introduction to the Project: (This is a completed live blog. I have decided not to correct most typographical errors or “fix” it. Some was done as late as 3 AM as I finished the book, but I felt the authenticity of the moment generally better than a smoothed out version.) I have defended Sarah Palin on numerous occasions against critics. I thought some conservatives turned on her too soon and that her executive experience outweighed any negatives known about her. I certainly did not think flubbing some interviews made her unfit to be a chief executive. If one were to...

Army Col. Conrad Reynolds is one of several Republicans vying to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) for Arkansas’ Senate seat in 2010. Reynolds’ campaign issued a press release last week blasting Lincoln for a vote, and among those who received it was Greg Chance, the news director of an NPR affiliate based at Arkansas State University. It seems Chance attempted to forward the e-mail to Katie Laning Niebaum, Lincoln’s Washington-based communications director. In his forward, which HOH obtained, Chance mocked the press release and even the campaign’s logo, which features the Army colonel insignia. “There was another one from...

Army Col. Conrad Reynolds is one of several Republicans vying to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) for Arkansas’ Senate seat in 2010. Reynolds’ campaign issued a press release last week blasting Lincoln for a vote, and among those who received it was Greg Chance, the news director of an NPR affiliate based at Arkansas State University. It seems Chance attempted to forward the e-mail to Katie Laning Niebaum, Lincoln’s Washington-based communications director. In his forward, which HOH obtained, Chance mocked the press release and even the campaign’s logo, which features the Army colonel insignia. “There was another one from...

By Andrew W. Griffin Oklahoma Watchdog Posted: September 30, 2009 andrew@oklahomawatchdog.org OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, said Wednesday he combed through documents from an abandoned local ACORN office because of reports of impropriety at other organization chapters. Oklahoma City-based news and investigative website Red Dirt Report discovered documents in an abandoned local office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now in south Oklahoma City’s “Little Mexico” neighborhood. Investigators found computers, hard drives, documents, registration forms, I-9 employment information and boxes with return addresses to ACORN’s New Orleans home office, as well as a regional IRS...

Former Bush administration solicitor general Theodore Olson is part of a team that has filed suit in federal court in California seeking to overturn Proposition 8 and re-establish the right of same-sex couples to marry.

The 2008 election campaigns are in full force in North Carolina. The airwaves abound with advertisements for President, Governor, United States Senate, and various other state offices. Amidst all of the media attention devoted to these important executive and legislative positions, it is easy to forget about the third branch in our state democratic system—the judiciary. Unlike their federal counterparts on the United States Supreme Court, who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, North Carolina Supreme Court Justices are elected. On November 4, 2008, North Carolina voters will elect one Justice to an eight year term...

Bottom Line: Some attacks on politicians are so craven that they redound to destroy the attacker. Gregg Jackson slanders Wayne Grudem and Mitt Romney, but the only reputation harmed is Gregg Jacksonâ€™s. Why I think this:Republicans can get surly with candidates other than their favorite at this stage of the primary season. Like a kid with a crush who cannot stand to hear bad news about his best girl, it is easy to over react to some of it. It does get wearisome and makes one long for more obedience to Reaganâ€™s Eleventh Commandment: speak no ill of a fellow...

On Monday, August 27, news services broke the story that Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, pleaded guilty in early August to lewd conduct in an airport restroom... Craig is hardly the only member of the Senate with a propensity for dropping his pants at inopportune moments... Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, has allegedly sexually harrased or abused at least 10 women. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., reportedly engaged in a sexual affair with an engagd lobbyist, Ron Dotzauer,then gave him a personal loan to help him with his subsequent divorce and threw cash his way... Gerry Studds (re-elected six times after having sex...

Man accused of trying to help al-Qaida sought US public rebellion MICHAEL RUBINKAM The Associated Press SCRANTON, Pa. - A man charged with trying to help al-Qaida blow up U.S. energy facilities described in chilling detail a plan to target a natural gas refinery and wrote that it would lead to "instant rebellion" by an American public disgusted over the Iraq war... Michael C. Reynolds, 49, of Wilkes-Barre, is on trial here on federal charges of providing material support to terrorists. He was arrested in December 2005 after he tried to meet a purported al-Qaida contact near a hotel where...

Intentionally or not, Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds seems to have written one of those posts that has everyone buzzing. Responding to reports that Iran is providing weapons used to attack Americans in Iraq, Reynolds argued: This has been obvious for a long time anyway, and I don’t understand why the Bush Administration has been so slow to respond. Nor do I think that high-profile diplomacy, or an invasion, is an appropriate response.We should be responding quietly, killing radical mullahs and iranian atomic scientists, supporting the simmering insurgencies within Iran, putting the mullahs’ expat business interests out of business, etc. Basically, stepping...

On this morning's Meet The Press, Tim Russert tried to pass off the editorial in the "Army Times" and sister publications calling for Donald Rumsfeld's noggin as having some special significance. RNCC Chairman Tom Reynolds didn't let him get away with it. Reynolds exposed those so-called "military newspapers" as nothing more than cogs in the Gannett chain, a member-in-good-standing of the MSM whose flagship paper is the reliably-liberal USA Today. Russert flashed the panel of the editorial shown here, and asked Reynolds: Video here. "Do you believe it would be helpful [to have] a change at the top of the...

The morning after President Bush declared Western New York a disaster area, Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds noted that he had pressed his case for federal aid with White House political guru Karl Rove. Of course, for Reynolds, such a conversation is nothing unusual. "I probably talk to Karl Rove two or three times a day," boasted Reynolds, a Clarence Republican. Unfortunately for Reynolds, thrice-daily discussions with the man nicknamed "Bush's Brain" don't impress voters like Robert P. Johnson of Williamsville. "Karl Rove is the protector of the party line, not of America," said Johnson, a lawyer and a registered Democrat...

Democrat Jack Davis has opened a significant lead over Republican incumbent Thomas M. Reynolds in a congressional contest fueled by Reynolds' association with the Mark Foley sex scandal. Davis leads Reynolds 48 percent to 33 percent in a new Zogby International poll conducted for The Buffalo News, prompting pollster John Zogby to conclude that Davis poses a genuine threat to the longtime powerhouse from Clarence.

Hopefully, I can finish writing this column today before it is OTBE. That's slang for the phrase "Over Taken By Events" On Wednesday, I had cranked out a piece for Sunday on two topics: Reaction to the Amish school murders and the nasty Mark Foley flap that has gripped the halls of power. The first part expressed outrage because members of the Westboro Baptist Church had announced they planned to protest at the funerals of the Amish girls killed Monday in Lancaster County, PA. In case you don't remember them, they're the bunch out of Kansas that pickets the funerals...

Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds will flood the airwaves this weekend to tell voters he is sorry he didn't do more to stop Rep. Mark A. Foley from sending salacious instant messages to teenage boys who served as pages in the House. But in an hour-long editorial board meeting at The Buffalo News on Friday, Reynolds repeatedly said he could not remember key details of his involvement in the Foley matter.

I haven’t wanted to discuss the disgusting Foley case (unfortunately he was my Congressman in Florida) until I felt I knew the answers to three questions: 1. were Representative Foley’s actions limited to online activity, 2. was there a sexual advance to a minor child, and 3. was there a Democrat plot at work to use this sordid affair as an October Surprise (possibly even involving an entrapment scheme)?

AFTER IT WAS learned that Rep. Mark Foley had dispatched an inappropriate e-mail message to a 16-year-old male former page, the House Republican leadership was still urging him to seek re-election from his Florida district. He agreed. It was a success that surely will cost the Republicans Foley's seat in Congress and perhaps control of the House for the first time since the 1994 election.

Based on what you know now, do you approve, or do you disapprove, of the job New York congressman Tom Reynolds has done in response to contact between congressmen and teenage pages? Approve 20% Disapprove 66% Not Sure 14 500 Adults, +/- 4.2% MOE Partisan breakdown: 41% Republican29% Democrat23% Independent

So, everyone knows that Kirk Fordham claims "he told House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office about worrisome conduct by his former boss, Rep. Mark Foley, toward teenage pages more than three years ago, long before officials have acknowledged becoming aware of the issue." AP Story posted at 4:00pm EDT Strange because in an AP Story from 9:46am EDT this morning it quotes: “I was still pretty shell shocked myself,” Fordham said of the day he learned about the messages. “This was someone I had worked for 10 years. I had no inkling that this kind of blatantly reckless - just obscene...

by Mark Finkelstein October 4, 2006 - 08:22 Perhaps there should be a new definition of 'RINO': Republican in NBC Only. Went it comes to hiring Republicans, NBC/MSNBC has a pronounced predilection for those with no special love for the party of Lincoln. Guys like Pat Buchanan, who quit the GOP to run against George Bush and loves to lambaste him. Or Joe Scarborough, who this morning predicted Republican doom and suggested hurling Hastert to the wolves. The former Republican representative from the Florida Panhandle, now host of his own MSNBC show, was Matt Lauer's guest on 'Today.' The two...

Republican Reynolds Faces Strong Challenge in NY26 Rematch:In an election in New York's 26th Congressional District today, 9/28/06, Republican incumbent Tom Reynolds and Democratic challenger Jack Davis are in a fierce fight, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for WGRZ-TV Buffalo. 40 days to the 11/7/06 election, Reynolds gets 45%. Davis gets 43%. Green Party candidate Christine Murphy gets 8%. This contest is a rematch of the 2004 election, when Reynolds, who was first elected to Congress in 1998, defeated Davis 56% to 44%. Reynolds gets 62% of Republican votes. Davis gets 64% of Democrat votes. 31% of Republicans,...

July 26, 2006 -- After being accused of sexual harassment and fired by ESPN, former "Baseball Tonight" analyst Harold Reynolds said yesterday he doesn't think he did anything wrong and is still hoping to regain his job. "This was a total misunderstanding," Reynolds told The Post. "My goal is to sit down and get back. To be honest with you, I gave a woman a hug and I felt like it was misinterpreted." SNIP Reynolds declined to give any more details. The woman who accused Reynolds of the sexual harassment is an ESPN co-worker, according to sources. Yesterday, ESPN confirmed...

July 25, 2006 -- ESPN yesterday fired analyst Harold Reynolds from Baseball Tonight, sources told The Post. The reason was not immediately known. "We are not going to comment," ESPN VP Josh Krulewitz said. When asked how they are going to explain that Reynolds will never be on the air again, Krulewitz still declined comment.

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) -- A local law enforcement official in eastern Idaho says an FBI sting that netted a Pennsylvania man -- being investigated in a plot to blow up oil and gas pipelines -- could have gone awry because he and other agencies weren't notified of the operation. "I think if we have these type of incidents, local law enforcement, at least local law enforcement department heads, need to be notified for the protection of our citizens and our officers," Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen told the Idaho State Journal. "Especially where this guy already had warrants out for...

Michael Reynolds, formerly of W-B, said he was trying to bait an al-Qaida operative. Keeping Michael Curtis Reynolds quiet could prove to be difficult. The former Wilkes-Barre resident accused by federal authorities of plotting to aid the al-Qaida terrorist network kept on talking against his lawyer’s advice on Dec. 15. He is held on unrelated weapons charges and has not been charged with any terrorism-related offenses. Last week he reportedly sent a letter from prison to a newspaper defending himself as someone intent on turning over a suspected terrorist to the proper authorities. And, at the time of his arrest...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Federal investigators have accused a Pennsylvania man of trying to conspire with al-Qaeda to blow up major U.S. oil and gas pipelines and wreck the economy, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Sunday. The FBI says Michael Curtis Reynolds, 47, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. attempted to provide material aid to al-Qaeda to disrupt the federal government, to change its foreign policy, and to turn the public against the war in Iraq, the newspaper said. The allegations were disclosed in a federal transcript obtained by the Inquirer on Friday. Reynolds has not been formally charged with terrorist offences but has...

Federal agents contend that a Pennsylvania man tried to work with al Qaeda in a plot to blow up the Alaska pipeline, another pipeline in Pennsylvania and a refinery in New Jersey, according to a published report. Michael Curtis Reynolds, 47, has not officially been charged with terrorism, but a prosecutor at a hearing said that Reynolds tried to "provide material aid to al Qaeda" and that the case "involves a federal offense of terrorism," The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in its Sunday editions. CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports that a tip from Shannen Rossmiller - a judge from Conrad,...

Below are statements from Republican leaders following news of Rep. Tom DeLay's (R.-Tex.) decision to permanently step down as House majority leader. All four of these GOP leaders have been mentioned as possible replacements for DeLay. The fact that all four have quickly reacted, on a Saturday afternoon nonetheless, might signal their desire to move up the GOP leadership ladder. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R.-Mo.), who is serving as acting majority leader: "My good friend Tom DeLay has made a very difficult decision. In keeping with his long commitment to our majority and the ideas we represent, he has...